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Eddie Allen
He studied music, theory and arranging at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay before moving to the east coast. He then attended the William Paterson University of New Jersey where he received a Bachelor of Music degree. Since his arrival on the New York scene he's worked with such jazz greats as; Art Blakey, Billy Harper, Randy Weston, Dizzy Gillespie, Henry Threadgill, Bobby Watson, Jon Faddis, Benny Carter, Panama Francis, Joe Henderson and Steve Turre.
He has recorded and performed with, as well as composed for: Louis Hayes, Lester Bowie, Jack McDuff, Etta Jones & Houston Person, Mongo Santamaria, Chico Freeman, Charli Persip, Vanessa Rubin and Muhal Richard Abrams.
He's performed in the orchestras of such Broadway hits as: Ain't Misbehavin', Black & Blue, Side Show, Jelly's Last Jam, Five Guys Named Mo' and Rollin' On the T.O.B.A.
As an author, he's written the instructional method book, "An Introduction To The Bb Concert Blues," which is published by Charles Colin Publishing - N.Y.C.
He's currently leading a quartet, a quintet, a Latin/Brasilian project and a large ensemble which brings together acoustic and electric/electronic instruments. He also leads a big band which not only plays his compositions and arrangements, but also the music of such jazz greats as Jimmy Heath, Bobby Watson, Muhal Richard Abrams and Rufus Reid as they come to lead the band. Eddie Allen continues to work as a freelance musician and clinician.
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Peter Hand: Blue Topaz
by Jack Bowers
Peter Hand has a hand in almost everything on Blue Topaz, playing masterful guitar, writing seven of the album's ten engaging numbers and arranging all of them. He also spliced together a pair of blue-chip ensembles for his first small-group recording after three well-received big-band albums, and invited his longtime friend--and legendary tenor saxophonist--Houston Person to sit in on two tracks. Person had also guested on one of the guitarist's big-band recordings, Out of Hand (2014). Hand's ...
read moreSchapiro 17: Human Qualities
by Jack Bowers
Following its splendid premiere recording, an exploration of Miles Davis' unrivaled album Kind Of Blue (Capitol Records, 1959), composer/arranger Jon Schapiro's 17-member ensemble broadens its horizons on Human Qualities, pairing seven of the maestro's astute and adventurous charts with the Roberta Flack best-seller, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." This time around, Schapiro proves that he need rely on nothing more than his own considerable experience as a jazz artist to create an album that expresses his point ...
read moreSchapiro 17: New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60
by Jerome Wilson
Miles Davis' album Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959) is the best-selling jazz album of all time and has been highly influential for the last 60 years. Most of its five tracks have become jazz standards and have been interpreted time and again. However it is rare to see the entire album reworked to the extent that Jon Schapiro and his big band, Schapiro 17, do here. The tracks undergo extensive retooling, expanding into big band arrangements that carry on the ...
read moreSchapiro 17: New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60
by Jack Bowers
2019 marked the sixtieth anniversary of the Miles Davis sextet's acclaimed album, Kind of Blue (Columbia). While the tributes didn't exactly pour in, New York-based composer / arranger Jon Schapiro took it upon himself not only to revisit that classic session but to re-orchestrate it for a large ensemble (the Schapiro 17) and flesh it out with half a dozen compositions of his own and another by pianist Roberta Piket. In keeping with the spirit of the occasion, all of ...
read moreEddie Allen: Push
by Everett R. Davis
Seasoned trumpeter, composer and educator Eddie Allen's highly awaited Push is a mix of mainstream jazz with generous sprinklings of urban flavors and reggae thrown into the mix. Allen and the excellent group of musicians he assembled for this release is simply riveting, with pure jazz and catchy flowing rhythms from start to finish. Allen states that the goal of this project was simply to create some good, fun to listen to music." The album opens with ...
read moreThe Aggregation, Under the Direction of Eddie Allen: Groove's Mood
by Edward Blanco
Trumpeter, composer, educator and band leader Eddie Allen is a very busy New York artist currently leading a quartet, quintet, a Latin/Brazilian group and the seventeen-piece big band, The Aggregation, the latter debuting with Groove's Mood. Allen which claims to have one goal: To have the listener in a finger-snappin,' head bobbin,' toe-tappin,' feel good mood from beginning to end." With ten pieces of blues, samba, and shuffle to ballad, spiritual and R& B classics, including instrumentals as well as ...
read moreMusic: The Universal Language
by AAJ Staff
By Eddie Allen One of the most common phrases concerning music used by musicians and non-musicians alike is Music is the universal language." But what does that really mean to people? When asked, for the most part the non-musician might say, You can listen to any kind of music and appreciate it." The musician might say, You can walk into a musical situation and sit in with musicians from other countries, races or cultures." At any rate, if ...
read moreEddie Allen and His Jazzy Brass for the Holidays Released on DBCD Label
Source:
Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
New York, New York -- Eddie Allen has been busy this year and what better way to conclude it than to release some holiday jazz. Allen is leading the way once again on Jazzy Brass For The Holidays which was recently released on DBCD November 3, 2009. Joining Eddie on trumpet are Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet), Clark Gayton (trombone), Marshall Sealy (French horn), Kenny Davis (acoustic bass) and Carl Allen (drums and glockenspiel). ...
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Eddie Allen and the Aggregation Release "Groove's Mood"
Source:
Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
Eddie Allen is a trumpeter, composer, arranger; and author-certainly one of the more versatile musicians on the New York jazz scene.
Because of his versatility contemporaries will call upon him for his talent to play everything from jazz big band, R&B/Pop, Latin, to symphonic to Broadway, and everything else that may fall somewhere into those genres.
These many talents come together once again with a group of musicians called The Aggregation on a new release set for release October 6, ...
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Jon Hendricks, Eddie Allen Quintet & Queens Jazz Trail Tour at Flushing Town Hall
Source:
All About Jazz
September 16, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FLUSHING TOWN HALL 137-35 Northern Blvd. (at the corner of Linden Pl.) Flushing, NY 11354 Box office: (718) 463-7700 x222 http://www.flushingtownhall.org/jazz.html Take the 7-train to Main Street/Flushing in Queens Free Parking Friday, October 21, 2005 at 8 p.m. Jazz Live! Headliner Concerts A NIGHT OF ELEGANCE WITH JON HENDRICKS" World-famous jazz innovator Jon Hendricks---known as the Poet Laureate of Jazz"---brings his Grammy Award-winning vocal talents to Queens! Seating is cabaret style ...
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"...Bracingly vivid trumpeter..." --Howard Mandel, The Village Voice
"A fullness replete with soft tone-edges and great leaping ability makes Allen interesting and worth a listen." --Andy Bartlett, Cadence Magazine
"Allen's trumpet and flugelhorn playing is marked by a playful inventiveness underscored by a slightly husky, almost vocal, tone and use of such swing trumpet strategies as smears, growls and glisses." --George Kanzler
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Music
Hand-Me-Down Blues
From: Blue TopazBy Eddie Allen